Joseph Torigian Assistant Professor Global Inquiry
- Degrees
- PhD from MIT and BA from University of Michigan
- Languages Spoken
- Chinese, Russian
- Bio
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You can learn more about me on my personal website, www.josephtorigian.com.
I study the politics of authoritarian regimes with a specific focus on elite power struggles, civil-military relations, and grand strategy. My philosophy as a scholar is to select topics based on the widest gap between the under-utilization of available documents and their theoretical and empirical importance, extract broader lessons, and use those lessons to help us to understand two nations of crucial geopolitical importance – Russia and China. My research agenda draws upon comparative politics, international relations, security studies, and history to ask big questions about the long-term political trajectories of these two states. In particular, I am interested in how leaders in those countries create security against threats from within the elite, their own people, and other states.
Previously, I was a Stanton Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton-Harvard’s China and the World Program, a Postdoctoral (and Predoctoral) Fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), a Predoctoral Fellow at George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, an IREX scholar affiliated with the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, a Fulbright Scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai, and a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations. My research has also been supported by the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation, MIT’s Center for International Studies, MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives, the Critical Language Scholarship program, and FLAS. I am also a Global Fellow at the History and Public Policy Program at the Wilson Center.
- See Also
- Personal website
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Teaching
Fall 2024
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SIS-619 Special Studies in Int'l Pol: Revisionst Chinese/Russian Pol
AU Experts
Area of Expertise
China, Russia, Cold War History, Elite Politics, Foreign Policy
Additional Information
Joseph Torigian is an assistant professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC. Prior to joining AU, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton-Harvard’s China and the World Program; a Postdoctoral (and Predoctoral) Fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC); a Predoctoral Fellow at George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies; an IREX scholar affiliated with the Higher School of Economics in Moscow; a Fulbright Scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai; and a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations. His research has also been supported by the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation, MIT’s Center for International Studies, MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives, the Critical Language Scholarship program, and FLAS. Currently, Joseph is also a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program.
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.